Training microbes to hunt out cancer and pollutants

Microbe engineering is being used by scientists to tailor the cells to do specific jobs

Microbe engineering - genetically programming microbial cells to carry out specific jobs - is becoming faster and cheaper. As a result, biologists are harnessing microbes' potential to undertake tasks ranging from cleaning up pollutants to detecting toxins. "The ability to reprogram the organism via its DNA is key," says Pamela Silver, professor of biochemistry and an expert in synthetic biology at Harvard University's Wyss Institute of Biologically-Inspired Engineering.

By inserting synthesised DNA that's been encoded with precise genetic instructions into a microbe, researchers can create tailored cells that travel to exact locations, or do specific jobs.

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Silver is working on "programming microbes that could sense and remember" environment information, and has found that bacteria can be engineered to detect a specific antibiotic inside mice and, when excreted, change colour to indicate its presence.

Silver has also engineered photosynthesising bacteria to produce hydrogen from sunlight, and other researchers are using microbes to detect cancer cells and identify harmful metals in water.

The next step is to resynthesise entire microbe genomes, which would expand the list of tasks that engineered microbes can do, and help fine-tune their activity, says Silver. "That would be a huge leap."